The present day health-care industry faces enormous challenges to satisfactorily deliver quality health solutions to the masses in a cost effective manner. The challenge gets stiffer, when remote communities are involved.

To … maximize the reach of medical personnel, it is important to merge wireless technology with medical documentation technologies like EMR and medical transcription.

The objective is to deliver health-care solutions through Telemedicine to near or distant communities, by creating a seamless health-care web.

A proper medical documentation system makes it easy for the physician to maintain a complete record of the patient. Medical documentation system like EMR or electronic medical record allows the physician to quickly enter the patient health information into relevant pre-structured templates through point-and-click mechanism. As a result, during medical diagnosis of patient, the physician directly enters the medical observations into computer to create an electronic record. This saves time and money as no additional staff and storage area is needed for maintaining bulky file cabinets.

In medical transcription, the diagnostic report of patient is dictated into the voice recorder and the voice file is sent to the transcriptionist. The voice file is converted into electronic text and sent back to physician. This is a manual process and takes time. The speech recognition software overcomes this drawback by directly converting dictation or spoken words into electronic file, which is then edited by the transcriptionist. This setup increases the transcription speed and at same time ensures high degree of accuracy.

EMR, medical transcription and speech recognition software make it easy to digitize the patient health information, in a safe and secure way. The digital data is then converted into suitable microwave signals by WIMAX (World Wide Interoperability for Microwave Access) and transmitted over large distances. All the security features are incorporated in the network to ensure that the bi-directional flow of the patient health data is as per HIPAA norms.

The wireless technology like the WIMAX, provides the last mile connectivity and allows for easy integration of the remote communities with urban centers, where majority of hospitals are located. Through WIMAX, it is possible to simultaneously receive and send, audio and video signals, an essential requirement of Tele-monitoring. The ECG and EEG of the distant patient can be easily monitored by a doctor in the hospital, situated thousands of miles away. In case of emergencies like accidents in remote areas, where the patient requires prompt medical attention, the paramedics can easily interact with hospitals. They can send medical observations, reports, videos and other records, online to hospitals and simultaneously receive instructions from doctors, on how to treat patients. This all can be easily done as the patient is being rushed to the nearest hospital. Thus WIMAX provides mobility to health-care delivery.

This type of health-care setup reduces patient visits to the hospitals or clinics, unless in case of an emergency or when it becomes necessary for patient. The stored health information can be easily updated regularly by doctor after each online interaction with the patient, during the course of the treatment.

Thus Medical transcription and electronic medical record can be smoothly integrated with WIMAX technology in such a manner that it reduces the cost of treatment. The patient does not have to pay for the transportation and accommodation charges, as he or she can easily avail online treatment.